Satyamev Jayate: Ringing in Change

The core theme of the show focuses on creating hope and positivity. Starting October 5, the third season of Satyamev Jayate will have six episodes. afaqs! looks at the marketing efforts of the channel.

When it was first launched in May 2012, Satyamev Jayate opened up a "dead" Sunday morning slot and gave people a reason to switch on their TV sets at 11 am sharp.

A Star India and Aamir Khan-Productions initiative, Satyamev Jayate brought to the fore issues such honour killing, female foeticide, child sexual abuse, rape, domestic violence, untouchability, alcoholism and the criminalisation of politics - not just by getting different point of views but through numbers that reflected the intensity of this issues. The show aimed to empower citizens with information about their country, and urge them to take action.

The third season of the series aims to inspire hope. Says Uday Shankar, CEO, Star India, "I am particularly proud that Satyamev Jayate has become the most powerful platform to inspire individuals and groups and acknowledge the extraordinary contribution that seemingly ordinary people are making to our country. For us at Star India, it has given purpose to why we exist."

Marketing hope

After influencing change at an individual, societal and policy level in the first two seasons, the show is returning with the core theme 'Mumkin Hai' or 'Change is Possible'. The focus will be on creating hope and positivity.

Says Khan, "Ninety per cent of my time this year has been spent on Satyamev Jayate, and it is with great anticipation that I look forward to the new season. We have an unusual mix of topics, and some really moving and inspirational first person accounts. Up till now the show was a one way communication, but now I get to hear LIVE the response of the audience, through direct phone calls, Twitter and Facebook."

The entire campaign for the new season has been divided in two phases focusing on the change already inspired by the show and how change is possible when everyone takes active interest and acts responsibly. Gayatri Yadav, marketing head, Star India says, "The focus is on what each of us can do individually to make a change and that such change is indeed possible. It's best captured in the proposition of "Mumkin Hai"."

The first phase kick-started four weeks back with the Satyamev Jayate Impact Films that showcased the impact that the show has had through individual and emotional stories of change. The films end with a message for the audience from Khan, that change is indeed possible.

The next phase celebrated regular people, who acted responsibly and took a stance in tricky situations, inspired by the values of Satyamev Jayate. The campaign has been created by Ogilvy and Mather and produced by Corcoise Films.

According to Yadav, the brief given to O&M was to bring Satyamev Jayate alive, as a symbol of hope and change. "It should also discuss the best possible solutions for change in an individual capacity, not just to highlight social issues affecting India." Adds Abhijit Avasthi, NCD, O&M, "Right from the launch, the show has been giving people some kind of hope that 'change is possible'. This time, we wanted to communicate that change is happening and we did this in two phases."

The marketing plan of the show includes innovations across mediums, right from digital, print, TV and radio. Over the course of the campaign, the promos will play in more than 30 channels.

One of the innovations was tying up with Twitter to become the "first ever show in the world" to release a promo through "Tweet to Unlock". As part of the activity, users had send in a tweet with #MumkinHai, and as the counter reached 100 per cent, the first promo was unlocked exclusively for the fans who had taken part in this activity.

The big innovation this season is a live show called "Mumkin Hai" wherein Khan will be interacting with viewers through phone calls and social media interactions. The live show will air right after the main episode and will be telecast each week from a different city in India. The channel is looking at radio partnerships in these cities.

Talking money

As per TAM data, provided by the channel, the show's cumulative reach for the five weeks stood at 106 million viewers. This when extrapolated to All India Universe, as per standard industry conversions, means that over 317 million Indians watched the five episodes of season 2.

Satyamev Jayate will be aired in five languages (Hindi, English, Marathi, Tamil and Malayalam) across 8 channels (Star Plus, Star Utsav, Star Pravah, Star World, Star Vijay, Asianet, ETV Telugu and Doordarshan). In addition to that, it will also be available on the official website.

Industry sources say that Star India is asking for Rs 3.5-4 lakh per 10 seconds. It has roped in Airtel and Axis Bank as 'presenting' and 'powered by' sponsors, respectively. Both brands, along with Reliance Foundation have been supporting the show since its first season. The associate sponsors include Maruti Suzuki and Amazon.in.

Axis Bank also acts as the principal banking and collection partner for the donations generated by the show. Says Sagnik Ghosh, AVP Marketing - Corporate Branding, Axis Bank, "As a brand, we stand for progress summed up as 'Badhti ka naam zindagi...' and that is close to the DNA of the show which is about progress by way of a positive societal change. Our consumer research shows that the association of the brand with the show has only strengthened amongst the higher SEC audiences over a period of time," Ghosh adds.

What kind of a brand is Satyamev Jayate? Says Dhirendra Singh, AVP, BPN, "The property has the right content, platform and a perfect host. These make Satyamev Jayate a good brand, fulfilling its social responsibility. However, sustainability and scaleability are the two things the brand needs to concentrate on."